General Election

ARTICLES ABOUT GENERAL ELECTION BY DATE - PAGE 3

About this time every year we read a letter on the opinion pages from someone who has chosen not to participate in a political party who feels disenfranchised. Such voters do not realize that they have disenfranchised themselves by not fully participating. The purpose of a primary election is for the parties to choose the candidates they wish to be placed on the ballot for the general election in the fall. That is why it is called a primary and not a general election. If you want to participate in a primary election, sign up, join a party and make it stronger.

Everyone noticed it: The candidates were strikingly similar. Both had lived in the Catasauqua Area School District for exactly 16 years. Both had one student in school and one that just graduated. Their sons played volleyball together. But there can only be one new school director, and Duane Deitrich won it Tuesday night, beating Christine Reingruber-Nace in a 5-3 vote to fill a vacant board seat. Deitrich, of North Catasauqua, also filled a vacancy on the board in 2011.

Monday is the deadline to register if you want to vote in Pennsylvania's April 24 primary. Residents can apply in person at various locations, including county registration offices, PennDOT photo and license centers and area agencies on aging. They can also download a registration form — at http://www.votespa.com — and mail it to their county registration office. In the primary, Republicans and Democrats will vote for nominees for president, the U.S. Senate and House, state attorney general, auditor general and treasurer, the state Legislature as well as delegates and alternate delegates to the national nominating conventions.

At least once in the lead up to the April 24 Pennsylvania primary, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney will cross paths in the same county, on the same date and at the same venue. A week before Republican primary voters go to the polls, both presidential hopefuls will speak at the Lancaster County Republican Committee's spring banquet on April 17, reports Tom Murse, politics reporter for The Intelligencer Journal/New Era . Lancaster County, aside from a liberal bloc in its downtown, is the heart of Republican country.

For Rick Santorum, the "Etch-a-Sketch" comparison that went viral was like a concilatory gift from the Mitt Romney campaign after Romney thumped Santorum in the Illinois primary. Of course, Romney didn't plan the gift exchange. But like a kid at Christmas, Santorum has a shiny new toy that fuels his most ardent argument that Romney's past policy moderation will resurface once in the White House. On CNN, Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom, when asked how the campaign would appeal to moderate voters in a general election after staking such conservative positions throughout the primary, Fehrnstorm responded, "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign," Fehrnstrom responded.

Democrats in the 15 th congressional district will have to wait another two weeks if they want to see their two choices for U.S. congressman face off for the first time at a debate. The League of Women Voters canceled its forum with Rick Daugherty and Jackson Eaton that had been scheduled for Tuesday evening. According to an email forwarded by Eaton's campaign, the League canceled the forum due to lack of interest but held out the offer of a possible forum before the general election.

LEXINGTON, S.C. -- Rick Santorum told a standing room only crowd at an aviation-themed restaurant here Tuesday afternoon that moderate candidates don't excite voters, and his staggering loss in Pennsylvania was a result of a bad climate for Republicans and is not indicative of his electability. A woman with slick blond hair probably just about voting age had asked him to detail how he would win. The difficulty, she said, is that primary voters' driving motivator is beating President Barack Obama.

Pennsylvania Ave. is off on the campaign trail in South Carolina this week to monitor whether Rick Santorum 's lofty political aspirations survive beyond Saturday's primary. We'll be with Santorum as he makes a last ditch appeal to social conservative voters, who so far have been unable to coalesce around one candidate. And while the race may appear all but decided with front runner Mitt Romney securing 37 percent of the support in South Carolina, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, Santorum's hope is that he can convince supporters of Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry to shift their allegiance and maybe, just maybe, surpass Romney and live on to Florida.

There are two distinct points of view on the odds of Sen. Bob Casey being re-elected in 2012: •He is in trouble, running for re-election in a state now hostile to Obama and seemingly safely Republican. In a bad year for incumbents and probably a bad year for Democrats, Pennsylvania's senior senator, so the notion goes, is fated to become an ex-senator, victim of an angry electorate, dismal economy and resurgent Republican Party. •His re-election chances look good to excellent in a state where he, and his father before him, almost always found a way to win despite the odds or obstacles.

HARRISBURG — A Bucks County lawyer was declared the winner Wednesday in the Democratic primary for a seat on one of Pennsylvania's appeals courts, with the final result nearly the same as what was reported shortly after last month's balloting. The Department of State said Doylestown lawyer Kathryn Boockvar defeated Pittsburgh lawyer Barbara Behrend Ernsberger by 2,052 votes out of more than 621,000 cast. Preliminary results had Boockvar with a 2,116-vote edge. The low-turnout race was close enough that the state had to pay for a recount of all 67 counties.